HAYWARD – Made in Japan Teriyaki Experience, a restaurant chain based in Canada, will open its first two California locations here and in San Francisco on Thursday.

The company opened its first U.S. store last summer in Atlanta, but has plans of opening 600 locations nationwide, including 40 in the Bay Area, within five to seven years. Teriyaki Experience’s concept is to offer fast and healthy Japanese food.

“The timing is right,” said Makhan Bains, a restaurateur and developer behind the Northern California expansion for Teriyaki Experience. “People are looking for this kind of concept. … There’s Chinese fast food, but not Japanese.”

Restaurant industry experts said many internationally-based chains are looking to expand to the American market and at the same time, consumers here want more choices and ethnic varieties.

The National Restaurant Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group, predicts that sales at quick service restaurants will grow 4.4 percent to $156.8 billion in 2008 and a major trend will be the expansion of ethnic alternatives.

“U.S. consumers in general are starting to adapt to Asian flavor profiles, especially the younger generation and Hispanics,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Technomic, a Chicago food and restaurant consulting firm. “They don’t need to focus on Asian population concentrations. They can open up in almost any demographic and find success.”

Bains has several more leases in the works in Union City, Fremont, San Jose, Pleasanton, Dublin and San Francisco.

The chain, founded in 1986, operates 117 stores in close to 20 countries, including Italy, South Africa, El Salvador, Egypt and the Bahamas.

A restaurant with an Asian theme is not a new concept, Tristano said, but few national quick service chains have emerged.

“The only major national player is Panda Express,” he said referring to the Chinese food chain. “There’s definitely opportunity because the market has not proved to be oversaturated. … There aren’t any No. 2, 3 or 4 players.”

Some other chains have entered the market including Sarku Japan, which is also Canadian-based and has nearly 200 locations in the United States. Locally, Sarku has locations in Santa Clara, San Bruno and San Jose.

“In the Bay Area, Japanese food has definitely become part of the mainstream,” said Joan Simon, owner of with Full Plate Restaurant Consulting, based in San Francisco. “Being close to San Francisco, we are the cuisine trailblazers for culinary style. Bay Area residents in general, even in the suburbs, are very open to multicultural food experiences, but with a decidedly healthy, fresh spin.”

Bains said the food is prepared with water instead of oil in the teppanyaki style of cooking, which means food sautéed on an iron grill.

“This concept is fast, fresh, cooked in front of you and healthy,” he said.

The restaurants feature a bright color scheme and its wall displays photos of its dishes and people jogging, playing with their kids in the park and jumping rope.

“The reason people gravitate toward fast food is because of its convenience and it is fast, we can go in and be served quickly at a reasonable cost,” said Jo Ann Hatner, a San Francisco-based registered dietitian and nutrition consultant, who teaches nutrition at the Stanford University School of Medicine. “A lot of fast-food outlets are offering healthier foods on their menus, but we as consumers have to chose those items.”